THE WORLD ATLAS

Empire · 802–1431 · Southeast Asia

Khmer Empire

In 802 Jayavarman II declared himself universal monarch in a ceremony on the Kulen hills, freeing the Khmer lands from Javanese overlordship and founding the Angkorian empire in what is now Cambodia. His successors built the city of Angkor near the Tonle Sap lake, supported by a vast system of reservoirs and canals that watered rice fields for perhaps 700,000 people.

Khmer kings presented themselves as god-kings linked to Shiva or Vishnu, and later to the Buddha. Suryavarman II built Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious monument, and Jayavarman VII built Angkor Thom and the Bayon and extended the empire across Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam. From the 13th century wars with the Thai and Cham, strain on the water system and climate shifts weakened Angkor, which Ayutthaya sacked in 1431.

Follow its story on the map

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, built in the early 12th century under Suryavarman II
Angkor Wat, Cambodia, built in the early 12th century under Suryavarman II Satdeep Gill · CC BY-SA 4.0
Years
802–1431
Capital
Hariharalaya, then Yashodharapura (Angkor)
Greatest extent
1290, about 1.00 million km²
Region
Southeast Asia

Much of mainland South-east Asia after the conquests of Jayavarman VII; c. 1.0M km² by 1290 (Taagepera 1997; Turchin, Adams & Hall 2006)

Legacy

Angkor Wat is Cambodia's national symbol and one of humanity's greatest architectural achievements.

Timeline of Khmer Empire

  1. Jayavarman II proclaims himself universal monarch on Phnom Kulen

    Before 802, Cambodia was divided among rival Khmer princedoms that grew out of the older state of Chenla. A prince named Jayavarman II brought them together under his rule. In 802, on the sacred mountain of Mahendraparvata, now Phnom Kulen, he held a Hindu consecration ritual and proclaimed himself chakravartin, 'universal ruler', and a god-king. He also declared his kingdom independent of 'Java', which may mean the island of Java or a neighbouring power. Historians date the Khmer Empire from this ceremony, and it appears on the map centred on north-western Cambodia.

  2. Yasovarman I founds Yasodharapura, the first city at Angkor

    Indravarman I had expanded the kingdom and built temples and reservoirs near the Tonle Sap lake. His son Yasovarman I, who came to the throne in 889, founded a new capital, Yasodharapura, the first city at Angkor. Its central temple stood on Phnom Bakheng, a hill about 60 metres high. He also built the East Baray, a huge reservoir about 7 km long. Angkor stayed the heart of the empire for more than five centuries, and its waterworks fed the rice fields that supported its people and armies.

  3. Rajendravarman II returns the court to Angkor from Koh Ker

    In the early 10th century the court was moved away from Angkor. King Jayavarman IV built a new capital at Koh Ker, some 100 km to the north-east. In 944 Rajendravarman II came to the throne and brought the royal palace back to Yasodharapura at Angkor. He resumed great building projects there, including the Hindu temples of Pre Rup and the East Mebon, on an island in the East Baray. In 950 he fought the first recorded war with Champa, the kingdom to the east in today's central Vietnam, beginning centuries of conflict between the two.

  4. Suryavarman I takes Angkor and reunites the kingdom

    After the death of Jayavarman V in 1001, rival kings fought over the throne. Suryavarman I defeated his opponents and took Angkor, becoming sole king (his reign is dated from 1002 or 1006, depending on the source). He made an alliance with the Chola Empire of south India against the Malay kingdom of Tambralinga. He pushed the empire west to Lopburi in the Chao Phraya basin of today's Thailand, and east along the Mekong, and began the West Baray, a reservoir 8 km long. The empire on the map now stretched well beyond Cambodia.

  5. Suryavarman II begins his reign; Angkor Wat is built

    Suryavarman II came to the throne in 1113 and ruled until about 1150. He was an ambitious warrior who attacked Dai Viet, in northern Vietnam, several times without success, and fought Champa. He is best known as the builder of Angkor Wat, a vast temple dedicated to Vishnu and probably meant as his own mausoleum. It was built during his reign and is today the largest religious monument in the world. His reign marks a high point of Khmer power and art.

  6. Suryavarman II sacks the Cham capital Vijaya

    Champa, the Cham kingdom on the coast of central Vietnam, was the Khmers' long-standing rival. Its king, Jaya Indravarman III, had refused to keep supporting Khmer attacks on Dai Viet. In 1145 Suryavarman II invaded Champa, defeated the king and sacked the Cham capital, Vijaya. He put a new king, Harideva, said to be his wife's younger brother, on the Cham throne. But the Chams soon fought back under Jaya Harivarman I, retook their capital and killed Harideva, and a final Khmer expedition in 1150 ended in a disastrous withdrawal.

  7. Cham fleet sails up the Tonle Sap and sacks Angkor

    After Suryavarman II died, the Khmer court was weakened by struggles over the throne. In 1177 the Cham king Jaya Indravarman IV took revenge for earlier wars. His fleet sailed up the Mekong, across the great Tonle Sap lake and up the Siem Reap river to Angkor. The Chams pillaged the capital and killed the Khmer king, Tribhuvanadityavarman. It was the worst disaster in the empire's history so far, and for a few years the Khmer state was in chaos.

  8. Jayavarman VII is crowned and builds Angkor Thom and the Bayon

    A Khmer prince, already in his fifties, led the fight to drive out the Cham invaders, including a naval battle carved on the walls of the Bayon temple. Having ended the factional fighting, he was crowned in 1181 as Jayavarman VII. He was the first Khmer king devoted to Buddhism. He rebuilt the capital as Angkor Thom, a walled city with the Bayon temple, famous for its giant stone faces, at its centre. He also built roads with rest houses and, according to inscriptions, 102 hospitals across the realm.

  9. Khmer conquest of Champa (1190–1191)

    Jayavarman VII wanted revenge for the Cham sack of Angkor in 1177. In 1190 he sent his armies into Champa, helped by Sri Vidyanandana, a Cham prince who had taken refuge at the Khmer court. They sacked and conquered Champa in 1190–1191. The Khmers then installed their own rulers, and Champa remained a dependency of the Khmer Empire for about 30 years. The empire now reached the coast of central Vietnam, near its greatest extent on the map.

  10. Jayavarman VIII begins paying tribute to the Mongols

    Jayavarman VIII, who reigned from 1243 to 1295, was a follower of Hindu Shaivism who destroyed many Buddhist statues. In 1283 the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China threatened Cambodia. To avoid war with the Mongol general Sogetu, Jayavarman VIII began paying annual tribute in 1285. The tribute kept the Mongols out, and the empire avoided invasion. But it also showed that the Khmers now had to bow to a stronger power, and his rule ended in 1295 when his son-in-law Srindravarman deposed him.

  11. Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan finds Angkor ravaged by war with Siam

    In 1296 the Yuan emperor Temür Khan sent an embassy to Cambodia that included the diplomat Zhou Daguan. He arrived at Angkor in August 1296 and stayed until July 1297. He later wrote 'The Customs of Cambodia', the only detailed eyewitness account of daily life in Angkor. He recorded that in a recent war with the Siamese 'the country was utterly devastated'. The new Thai kingdoms to the west were beginning to eat into the empire's lands, which shrank on the map.

  12. Ayutthaya besieges Angkor, taking it the next year

    In the 14th century the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya, in the lower Chao Phraya valley, became the Khmers' main rival. In 1352 King Uthong of Ayutthaya besieged Angkor. The city was captured the next year, and the Khmer king was replaced with Siamese princes for several years. Ayutthaya also kept control of western Khmer provinces it had seized. The Khmers recovered their capital, but the balance of power had shifted west, and later Siamese attacks followed, including another capture of Angkor in the 1390s.

  13. Angkor falls to Ayutthaya; the court moves to the Phnom Penh area

    Ayutthaya's armies besieged Angkor again, and according to Thai chronicles the city fell in 1431 after a siege of about seven months. The Khmer king Ponhea Yat judged Angkor indefensible and moved his court south, eventually to the area of present-day Phnom Penh. Angkor was not completely abandoned, and its temples remained in religious use. But the Angkorian empire was over, and historians mark this as the start of Cambodia's post-Angkor period.

Periods and reigns

Rulers

Realms on the map

Chapters

Sources